Getting Started on Linux#

Requirements#

  • GCC

  • sphinx package for the documentation (optional).

  • Depending on your linux distribution, the following dependencies might also be required:

    • libgl-dev, python-dev, and python-setuptools.

  • Check the platform dependencies of Qt for Linux/X11.

Building from source#

Creating a virtual environment#

The venv module allows you to create a local, user-writeable copy of a python environment into which arbitrary modules can be installed and which can be removed after use:

python -m venv testenv
source testenv/bin/activate

will create and use a new virtual environment, which is indicated by the command prompt changing.

Setting up CLANG#

If you don’t have libclang already in your system, you can download from the Qt servers:

wget https://download.qt.io/development_releases/prebuilt/libclang/libclang-release_140-based-linux-Rhel8.2-gcc9.2-x86_64.7z

Extract the files, and leave it on any desired path, and set the environment variable required:

7z x libclang-release_140-based-linux-Rhel8.2-gcc9.2-x86_64.7z
export LLVM_INSTALL_DIR=$PWD/libclang

Getting the source#

Cloning the official repository can be done by:

git clone https://code.qt.io/pyside/pyside-setup

Checking out the version that we want to build, for example 6.5:

cd pyside-setup && git checkout 6.5

Install the general dependencies:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note

Keep in mind you need to use the same version as your Qt installation. Additionally, git checkout -b 6.5 --track origin/6.5 could be a better option in case you want to work on it.

Building and Installing (setuptools)#

The setuptools approach uses the setup.py file to execute the build, install, and packaging steps.

Check your Qt installation path, to specifically use that version of qtpaths to build PySide. for example, /opt/Qt/6.5.0/gcc_64/bin/qtpaths.

Build can take a few minutes, so it is recommended to use more than one CPU core:

python setup.py build --qtpaths=/opt/Qt/6.5.0/gcc_64/bin/qtpaths --build-tests --ignore-git --parallel=8

To install on the current directory, just run:

python setup.py install --qtpaths=/opt/Qt/6.5.0/gcc_64/bin/qtpaths --build-tests --ignore-git --parallel=8

Building and Installing (cmake)#

The setuptools approach includes internal CMake calls when building and installing the project, but a CMake-only approach is only recommended for packaging the project for distribution builds.

Assumming that Qt is in PATH, for example, the configure step can be done with:

cmake -B /path/to/the/build/directory \
      -S /path/to/the/pyside-setup \
      -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/where/to/install \
      -DPython_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/interpreter

Note

You can add -DFORCE_LIMITED_API=yes in case you want to have a build which will be compatible with Python 3.7+.

and then for building:

cmake --build /path/to/the/build/directory --parallel X

where X is the amount of processes you want to use. Finally, the install step can be done with:

cmake --install /path/to/the/build/directory

Note

You can build only pyside6 or only shiboken6 by using the diferent source directories with the option -S.

Test installation#

You can execute one of the examples to verify the process is properly working. Remember to properly set the environment variables for Qt and PySide:

python examples/widgets/widgets/tetrix.py